Sandro Viletta
of Switzerland made up 1.64 seconds in the slalom run of super combined to take the gold medal, the latest disappointment for the U.S. Alpine team.

Ivica Kostelic
of Croatia, whose father, Ante, set the gates on the course, took the silver while
Christof Innerhofer
of Italy snatched bronze.

The U.S. had the defending gold medalist and the reigning world champion in the field, with
Bode Miller
and
Ted Ligety,
but neither could find the right rhythm during the afternoon slalom run to overcome what they said were subpar downhill runs during morning. Miller finished sixth, while Ligety came in 12th, just behind a third American,
Jared Goldberg.

ENLARGE

Ted Ligety of the U.S. competes in the slalom run of the men's alpine skiing super combined event Friday.
Reuters

After a morning of warm sun, the temperature started dropping in the middle of the afternoon. By the 3:30 start time, the sun was off the course and was no longer the issue it had been in the morning, when it dominated the buzz. The wet snow slowed the downhill course and became rutted as 200-pound skiers plow down the mountain at 80 miles an hour and dig their edges in on the turns.

The skiers became obsessed with the start order, which was selected randomly. Skiers go off in about two-and-half-minute intervals. An early start time didn't guarantee a good time in the downhill, but a late one appeared to doom the field.

"It's all the guys who started early who are leading the field," Ligety said after the downhill run. The top six skiers on the downhill segment of the race were among the first 14 skiers out of the gate on downhill.

And yet Viletta, who started 20th in the downhill, was able to ski a nearly flawless slalom run and jump from 11th place to the gold medal, winning by a third of a second over Kostelic, a masterful technical skier who had one off-balance turn midway down the hill that likely cost him the gold medal.

Miller, who was 10th after the downhill, had a rough run on the frighteningly steep and icy top of the course, and never quite found his rhythm.

"In these races, in these conditions you can't make mistakes," Miller said.

Ligety was in 18th after his downhill run, 1.93 seconds behind leader
Kjetil Jansrud,
a speed racer, who fell from contention after the slalom. He said he didn't ski aggressively enough in the slalom to get on the podium. He is also among the favorites in the Super G and Giant Slalom, two other events in which he is the reigning world champion.

Just like a majority of youngsters that are produced from the US now; the blame can't be anything but someone or some other stupid excuse. Face it you didn't have what it takes, so you lost. Get over it and quit making the rest of us look like spoiled little brats.

The blame game is at it's best from all directions now. From the Top person in the country to the lowest rungs of society. Maybe we can add another sport to the Olympics. The blame game.

Well said. Here's what the Silver medal winner from Croatia had to say: He sat next to the gold medal winner, Switzerland's Sandro Viletta, at a post-race news conference and faced the question he knew was coming. Was he disappointed?

“This is the question that is often said to me," Kostelic said, acknowledging that everyone loves a winner. "The Americans, they say the second one is the first loser. But I say this is not completely true. … Silver medal, of course I would have liked to have gold today. I had a good chance. It's just there was this one guy who skied better" — and here he looked over at Viletta — "and one should not be unthankful for the silver."

Kostelic spoke slowly and deliberately, as if to hammer home his point.

"I could be anywhere, I could be in a hospital right now, too," he said. "I could be picking garbage in Calcutta, or dying of hunger in Africa. So anyone who complains about silver or bronze doesn't have the right to do so. Gold is the ultimate aim for us, and for me as well, but I am happy with silver."

Kostelic specializes in silver in other ways too. At 34, he is the second-oldest Alpine skier to win an Olympic medal. And he is second-best in his family: His sister Janica won six Olympic medals, four gold, at the 2002 Salt Lake Games and 2006 Torino Games.

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